


Winter's Desire

by Hermaline75



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Anal Sex, Consent Issues, F/M, Infidelity, Intercrural Sex, M/M, Sex Magic, Sibling Incest, The character death is 'offscreen', Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, mcuharlequin, mcuharlequin challenge, multiple eras
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-19
Updated: 2014-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-19 23:44:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1488577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hermaline75/pseuds/Hermaline75
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the MCU Harlequin Challenge.</p>
<p>Following a misguided attempt at magic, Thor accidentally unleashes a lust spell on the world and charges Loki with tracking it down through time and finding a way to stop it.</p>
<p>Please see inside for more notes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thor

**Author's Note:**

> I based this (very, very loosely) on the following blurb from an actual Harlequin romance novel called 'Winter's Desire'
> 
> "On Solstice eve long ago, a Druid priestess and Norse warrior succumb to forbidden, erotic desire. Their passion is one that neither death, decree—nor time—can tear asunder.
> 
> Now three women of later centuries begin their own sensual journeys, awakened by the ancient power of the priestess's words—"Burn bright of winter's desire."
> 
> •SABELINE•experiences surprisingly unbridled nights with her betrothed's best friend in a lusty medieval tale…
> 
> •SINEAD•her body yearns for her husband, killed in the Crimean War—and for the officer who broke the tragic news….
> 
> •AISLING•writes risqué stories under a secret pen name, but her real-life love life is a bore…until she makes a wish for her winter's desire that works only too well."
> 
> And then I proceeded to almost completely wander away from that, but I think it's still just about evident that this was my starting point.

He knew it was wrong as he left his wife asleep and slipped out of the marital home.

As he made his way through the woods, he considered running back. Slipping back into his bed and forgetting he’d ever agreed to this. Whatever ‘this’ was.

He could still back out. He could tell Loki he had changed his mind. Hang the consequences.

Then again, he would not have this chance again for a full year. It had to be tonight. This could be the difference between success and failure.

He blew out the lantern he’d brought with him and entered a clearing, blinking in the sudden darkness. He started when a hand touched his shoulder.

“I thought for a moment you were not coming.”

“Gods, Loki. How long were you hiding that you might frighten me so?”

“Not so long, brother. You are prepared?”

“Aye. Though I know not what for.”

“Patience. You asked for my help and I intend to give it to you.”

It was true. Thor was potentially on the edge of greatness, and it was possible that he could achieve his goals through his own skills. And yet here he was. About to rely on sorcery to cheat the universe and mould it to his will. He had turned to kin, to a brother he had not spoken to in some time, a brother whose exploits came back to his ears in the form of rumours. At least, he hoped the tales of blood drinking and shape-changing were rumours only. He dared not ask.

“What must I do?” he asked.

“You wish to be Jarl, do you not? You wish for power, glory and the like?”

“Yes.”

“Again.”

“Yes!”

He could not be sure in the darkness that Loki was smiling, but he thought so.

“In that case, you must do exactly as I tell you.”

Thor felt his skin prickle beneath his cloak. “I will not be harmed? In any way?”

Loki huffed. “No, Thor, you will not be harmed. Very much the opposite in fact, if you are as I remember you...”

Thor steeled himself. “You mock me with your riddles.”

“Just a little. Come. She is waiting.”

_She?_

“Who is waiting?”

Loki said nothing but led Thor by the arm deep into the woods.

“Loki, what do you mean?”

“Ssh... She is concentrating very hard. Do not disturb her with your prattling.”

Thor turned and planted a hand on Loki’s chest. “I will go no further until you tell me what waits for me.”

“Fine. Spoil your surprise. A priestess is creating the spell for you. A pupil of mine, one of the best. She volunteered to do it, Thor. It is of no consequence.”

“But why her? Why a stranger? Could not you have done it?”

Loki laughed mirthlessly. “I could have, Thor. I would have been willing but I feared you would run screaming if I did.”

“Did what?”

“Oh, Thor. Do you truly know so little of the world? There must be an act between the creator and the receiver of a spell to ensure its success...”

Thor stared at him, the pale face of his brother in the moonlight. “What act? What do you mean?”

“I have brought you in the dead of night to a secluded place to meet with a woman. What do you think I mean?”

Thor shook his head. “No. No, I cannot. I am married, Loki, I cannot do this.”

Loki scoffed. “Married? Marriage is a quirk of the law, Thor. This is not being unfaithful. This is mere ceremony, a necessary act in your quest for power. It means nothing. No one will know.”

Thor still looked unsure.

“Think of it this way,” Loki said, reaching to remove Thor’s cloak. “This is a dream. Just a dream. Tomorrow it will not matter and you can carry on, pretending you don’t know why you feel more certain of your decisions and more guided towards greatness.”

Thor stood deadly still and allowed himself to be undressed. It should feel strange allowing his brother to remove his clothes. Just a dream, he told himself, a dream of no consequence. Do not think of home. Do not think of Sif and the children sleeping.

Loki began to trace patterns on his skin with his fingertips.

“Just adding a little of my own magic to aid her. She is an excellent sorceress, but... well, it can’t hurt to help a little.”

Thor nodded absently. “She... she knows what is to happen?”

“Yes. I made it clear to her. She volunteered. It is an excellent chance to practise her skills.”

“Then she is not...”

“Not what?”

“She is not untouched?”

“This is not the first time she has cast a spell for a man, no. Though this is the most complex she has yet attempted. The spell will cling to you for years, Thor. It will protect you through the harshest battle and guide you in darkness. But you must help her complete it. Obey her. If she moves you, then move. She makes all the decisions here. You may touch her, evidently, but do not speak. Do not disrupt her. And do not be afraid of her eyes. She will be working very hard and she may seem to look through you as though blind. It is normal.”

Thor clenched his fists a few times. His skin tingled where Loki had laced magic through him.

“Take me to her.”

Loki smiled and took his arm, leading him again.

The woman knelt with her back to them in the centre of a large wheel drawn on the ground. Her naked skin shone in the moonlight, her dark hair tumbling down her back. Thor couldn’t help but admire the gentle slope of her shoulders and the curve of her hips. He watched as goose bumps travelled in flocks across her skin. And something else. There was something... strange about her.

“She is... There is light within her skin, not from outside...” he whispered.

“Impressive,” Loki whispered back. “Not many can see it. It seems there is a little magic in you after all, Thor. Of course, to someone like me, she is a living flame. The power flows through her veins and all but consumes her, but she will not let it. She is too disciplined.”

The woman extended a hand behind her.

“She is ready for you,” Loki breathed. “Do not leave her waiting.”

Thor approached, as though underwater. The short distance between him and the waiting figure seemed to stretch out indefinitely.

He crouched behind her, running his hands carefully over her skin, starting at her arms, reaching around her body to feel the soft swell of her breasts and the curve of her stomach, down to run over her thighs. She was warm to the touch, despite her shivers. He carefully moved the thick tresses of her hair to allow himself access to her neck, planting soft kisses against her throat and feeling her arch and sigh at his touch.

She was beautiful.

She turned to face him, pushing him back onto the earth even as he tried to grasp her, with a strength he was sure couldn’t come from her physical form alone. The magic was within her, helping her, only just under her control, and now he had to help her and release her from it. He had to.

She straddled him, hair falling across her face as she leant forward, her hands on his chest. Thor reached up to stroke it back behind her ear and realised with a shock that he had seen this woman before.

“Jane?” he said, incredulously.

She sank down onto his erection. At his voice she looked up as though to gaze at his face, her eyes glazed and unseeing. It was unnerving. She moaned and he reached to grip her thighs. She began to move, slowly rolling her hips and he could feel the magic flowing from her into him, like waves of warm water washing through his skin, up his sternum and into his heart, along his spine into his mind. And there was something else too. Thoughts. Memories of childhood from so long ago.

_Running through the market, avoiding the gaze of their parents, Loki stealing food from stalls and the pair of them running to hide and devour whatever titbit they’d managed to get away with, evenings spent falling asleep at the tables while adults discussed all manner of dull things and then the first time he’d looked up as a young man and seen..._

“Jane...” he said, more certainly.

She sighed and began to move faster, one hand moving between her legs and her head tipping back.

_...She was a visitor, they said. Her father was someone important, no doubt. And she would be here for such a short time that he knew he would barely have a chance to speak to her, let alone..._

“Jane!”

Her eyes snapped open and she looked at him fully, the fog that had previously filled them vanished.

“Thor...” she breathed, her body beginning to shudder.

He tightened his grip on her hips, thrusting upwards desperately, the heat flowing from her becoming unbearable and he just needed a little more, please, please, and Jane was screaming above him, screaming and screaming...

Loki snarled as he grabbed Jane around the waist and yanked her away from Thor.

“What did you do?” he growled in her ear, just loud enough that Thor could hear it. “What did you DO?”

“Nothing...” Jane panted. “Nothing, I don’t understand...”

“Jane...” Thor moaned as he sat up.

Loki’s gaze fell upon him like a brand. “What did you call her?”

“Jane. I know her. From years ago.”

“How?”

“Do you not recall, Loki? She was at the trade agreements, so long ago. We were barely men. Can you not recall her?”

Loki pulled Jane’s face upwards by the chin to look at her face, before dropping her uncaringly onto the ground. “You lied to me.”

“I feared you would know me,” Jane said desperately. “They wanted to sell me, to marry me off to some stranger, so I ran. I fled my family and I needed a skill for myself. I knew you would teach me magic if I were a foreigner that no one would miss, so I lied about my name and my home because I thought that if you knew who I was you would turn me away.”

“You thought correctly. You leave tomorrow. Go where you wish, I care not. I see now why you were quite so eager when I told you I needed a volunteer for my brother’s sake. You knew of whom I spoke, you couldn’t wait to claim him as your own...”

“Don’t...” Thor said. “Don’t punish her. It was my fault, I distracted her. You told me not to speak, and I did. I broke the spell.”

Loki let out a bark of laughter. “You think you broke it? Oh, Thor, if only that’s what you had done.”

Thor stood, panicking, not caring that he was naked. Jane had conjured a robe for herself in a trick he remembered from when Loki was first learning seidr.

“What do you mean? What will happen?”

“Normally if the caster is awoken from their trance early the spell is not completed, even if both partners reach climax. What you did though? Well, some kind of spell was cast; I felt it. But it was not the one we intended. You have unleashed a spell born of lust, one that feeds on desire, something that could devour hearts and destroy lives. Years and years from now others will pay for your mistake. I knew I should have done it myself...”

He angrily turned to leave but Thor stopped him.

“Others? What others? What will the spell do to them?”

Loki glared at him, before sighing. “It will make them crave forbidden lovers. As you lusted for Jane and she for you, so they will want those who are withheld from them. It will consume them.”

“How will it choose them?”

“Any number of reasons. Perhaps they will share your ambition. Jane’s independence. Your birthdays. They could even be your descendants. There are any number of arbitrary reasons the spell may choose a victim. A victim, Thor, because spells are parasites. Controlled magic can be managed, but this is rampant. It will feed on them. Even the spell we failed to cast for you tonight would have eaten you eventually. You would not have felt it, though that is of no consequence now. I estimate it would have taken at least three months of your life.” He looked back at Jane. “Nothing comes without price. Learn from this.”

Thor snatched up his cloak and followed his brother through the woods as he walked away.

“I cannot allow my mistake to harm others, Loki.”

“It is done. Nothing can change it.”

“There must be something you can do! Please. You must.”

“Oh, I ‘must’, must I? This is so familiar, always relying on me to clean up your messes...”

“Please, Loki. Please. Anything you wish, I will provide.”

“Anything?” Loki finally stopped and turned to him. “Anything that I wish?”

Thor shivered slightly under his gaze. “Yes. Anything.”

“Hmm. I do not think you will like what I wish, but I can’t let such an opportunity pass by. I make no promises, but I swear to try. And if I succeed I will be back for payment, with proof that it is done.”

Thor shook Loki’s proffered hand, regretting this instantly but knowing he couldn’t live with the guilt of letting others suffer for his mistakes.

“What will you do?” he asked.

“I will try to undo it. It may take me some time. Accidental magic is complex and wild; I may not even be able to trace it. It may lie dormant for decades, centuries even. To stop it, I must consult a seer, someone with skills I do not possess.”

“I’m sorry, Loki.”

“Really? Well. I hope that brings you comfort.”


	2. Virginia

She didn’t know what to do.

In theory she should be happy. She should be overjoyed. It was an excellent match. Lord Anthony was wealthy, kind, well-connected. Her marriage would be advantageous to her family. And she did like him. It was just wondering whether liking would turn to love that was bothering her.

She’d read his most recent message over and over again. He was attentive. He was thoughtful. He asked about small details of her life that she had told him. Everything was as it should be.

She just didn’t feel it.

She wondered if everyone felt this way before marriage. Maybe it took more time than she thought to build a relationship. Maybe this was normal.

There was a knock at her door.

“My lady... Marshall Rhodes wishes to know if you are disposed to meet with him.”

She glanced down. She was ready for bed, but then again Rhodes had known her since childhood. She tied her robe more tightly for propriety’s sake.

“I will meet him.”

Marshall Rhodes entered.

“I’m sorry to call on you so late, but I heard you were in need of some comfort.”

“I am sorry that I am meeting you so informally.”

“I don’t think that matters between us. But what has troubled you? Is there bad news from Lord Anthony?”

“No. No, not at all. I am merely out of sorts. It’s nothing.”

She looked away from him, pretending to sort the papers on her writing desk. “Pepper, please...” he said quietly.

She started at such an old name.

“No one has called me that since I was a child.”

“I always thought it suited you. There is something dear about it. But you must tell me what has upset you.”

She stood up from her chair and paced the room a little.

“How am I to marry a man I barely know? I have met him barely five times. He is always away, he is always at war...”

“Anthony works hard. He is a good man, Pepper. You know well that we are friends, and that he employed me often when I was a mercenary and that it is through him that I hold my current position. Would you have me tell you of him? Perhaps that would help.”

“I think it might. His letters are always charming but I would rather know how he is in reality, not when he is acting for a lady.”

Rhodes chuckled. “May I sit down?”

She gestured her assent.

“Lord Anthony is, as you say, very charming,” he began. “He has been a rogue and a scoundrel in his time, though those days are long past. He is quick witted, genial, and good hearted. He enjoys wine, perhaps a little too much, but not to the point of vice.”

Pepper nodded attentively. She wished to know everything and anything that might prepare her for her future life.

“He is my dearest friend,” Rhodes was saying. “And I can think of no one I would prefer for you than him. He will be a good husband and he will grow to love you and you him.”

“I expect you are right,” she said, sitting on the edge of her bed. “Though I would much rather choose a husband for myself.”

“And who would you choose, given that choice?”

She laughed, the sound seeming strange and foreign to her ears. “I do not know. My knowledge of men is limited at present. It would have to be you, I imagine.”

She laughed again but stopped when she saw his expression.

“Would you truly have me?” he asked. “If we were free to choose?”

The question shocked her. She had known Rhodes – James – for as long as she could recall. He was a close friend, a dear confidant. And the more she thought of it, the harder it was for her to think of any reason, barring societal rules and the fact neither of them had the means to marry, why she would refuse him. If he were to ask.

“I imagine I would,” she said eventually. “What a shame, then, that we are not free.”

“Indeed.” he replied.

They were silent for a while. Her thoughts were whirling. It was like waking up suddenly. Why had she never thought of James that way? She had never really thought of him as anything, not as a brother or anything like that. He was just James.

She realised she was staring at his lips and hurriedly looked away.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I... I’m sorry.”

He approached her carefully.

“Pepper?”

He sat on the bed, leaving some distance between them, but reached out to take her hand from where it lay limply at her side. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

“Pepper, do you want me to leave?”

Her voice cracked. “No. No, stay with me.”

She grasped his hand tightly and drew it to her lips, feeling him shiver slightly at her touch. He drew his hand away.

“Pepper... We can’t do this.”

“I know. But I want... I want to feel safe for a while. You make me feel safe.”

She breached the space between them and gingerly kissed his cheek, waiting for his reaction before she pressed her lips to his. He gasped slightly and deepened the kiss, encouraging her to open her mouth before he drew back hurriedly.

“We shouldn’t...” he said. “You are engaged. To my dearest friend.”

“I know.”

“And you’re... You don’t know what you’re asking of me...”

She stood up suddenly.

“You think I am a child. My mother has not sent me into the world unknowing. I understand what happens between man and wife. I am not afraid.” She softened. “James, please. I do not ask you to cuckold your friend; I simply wish to feel the arms of a man around me, someone I trust, before I am sent to a near stranger.”

“Anthony is not a stranger. You exchange letters, you are acquainted...”

“Yes, and soon enough I shall vow before God to love and cherish him until the end of my days, forsaking all others. Please let me have this, that I might know how it feels to have someone who truly cares for me beside me as I fall asleep.”

She could see him wavering. She gazed into his eyes, pleadingly.

“I will stay above the blankets,” he said. “And I will turn my back until you are under them.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

He faced the wall while she slid out of her robe leaving just her nightgown. She settled beneath the blanket before asking him to join her. She felt the bed dip beneath his weight. He made himself comfortable before he slid one arm beneath her head and the other around her torso. She feared he would feel the way her heart fluttered and jumped in her chest to have him so close. His breath was warm against her hair.

“Just until you fall asleep.” he said, without much conviction.

She shuffled beneath his embrace until she had turned to face him. Their noses were almost touching and she wanted so desperately to kiss him again but she was afraid he would leave if she did. She breathed deeply, trying to capture that scent that was uniquely him and to lock it away somewhere in her memory to consult in the future when a strange man would be facing her, instead of a friend.

James had closed his eyes. She tried to subtly slide closer, her hair spilling out of its braids over his arm.

“You are not sleeping.” he said.

“No.”

He sighed and opened his eyes again. “I want you, Virginia...”

“Pepper. Please, call me Pepper. I miss that name.”

“I want you, Pepper, and I know you want me too, but this is wrong. We cannot do this.”

“I know. And I know I cannot ask it of you. But is there truly no way we could be closer? I wish to hold you.”

He withdrew and for a moment she thought he was leaving, but he simply climbed fully clothed beneath the blankets and allowed her to put her arms around him and to rest her head against his chest. She lay very still, trying to tell his pulse from her own.

“I wish we could stay like this,” she said, not really intending for him to hear.

He sat up slightly against her.

“Pepper, there is...there is something I could do for you that wouldn’t be... It wouldn’t...”

“What?”

“It would be intimate but it wouldn’t be... you wouldn’t know the full touch of a man.”

She hesitated. “What is it?”

“You would have to trust me.”

“I do trust you. You know that I do.”

He moved both hands to her face and pulled her into a kiss. She sighed into him, drawing her body close to his.

“Have you ever touched yourself, Pepper?” he asked when they finally broke apart.

She started at him. “I...”

“There’s nothing wrong with doing that.”

She flushed. “Yes. I have.”

“Then you will be able to guide me... Turn over.”

She wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but dutifully turned away from him. She gasped as he ran his hands over her clothed breasts and down her body and began to move her nightgown ever higher up her thighs. He ran a hand up her leg.

“Tell me to stop if you wish.” he whispered.

“Keep going...”

He pulled her on top of him, her back to his chest, and his hands continued to roam, one on her chest and the other working beneath her clothes. Their heads were now next to each other allowing her to turn to the side and kiss him. His hand reached under her small clothes and ran over the curve of her sex, his fingers running through the hair that grew there, before he slid one of his fingers deeper into her folds. Pepper gasped at the contact; although she had explored her body by herself, the sensation of someone else touching her was very different.

“Help me, Pepper. Talk to me, tell me how you feel.”

“Strange.”

“Strange, how? Like you want me to stop?”

“No!” she said, perhaps a little too quickly. “No, please, keep going.”

He did as she asked, continuing to stroke her rhythmically, before paying special attention to the concentration of nerves that caused pleasure to spark through her body. She found herself moving against him, trying to encourage his motion, soft moans escaping her lips even as she tried to hold them back. She realised she could feel him, hard beneath is trousers.

“James?”

“It’s fine, this is for you, not me.”

“But I want to...” she moaned. “I want to make you feel good too.”

“Afterwards.”

She tried valiantly to keep her breathing under control as he increased the pressure of his fingers, making tiny circles against her flesh. His other hand gently unlaced the top of her nightgown to touch the skin beneath it. She had never given her breasts much attention before, but somehow when James touched them it was different.

Everything was different.

And there was no going back now.

She bit back the moans when she finally climaxed. The sensation was not unknown to her, but it was strange to have someone else’s actions bring her to that point. There was something frightening about letting go and allowing another person into that moment.

She lay against James’ chest, feeling like she never wanted to move. She suddenly felt his arousal again and shifted experimentally. He groaned softly at her touch.

“Please, James, let me do something for you.”

He said nothing.

“Please, I want to...”

“Yes. Yes, alright. Turn onto your side.”

She was reluctant to relinquish her contact with him but did as he asked.

“This may feel strange,” he said, unlacing his breeches. “But don’t worry, it will not hurt.”

She started at the feeling of his cock against her skin, sliding between her thighs.

“Keep your legs together for me... Not too tight...”

She held her thighs together, relishing James’ moans. She was making him do that, she was moving him closer and closer to the edge.

“Pepper...”

She shivered to hear that name from him at this time. No one ever called her that. No one had called her that in years. It was precious and strange and secret.

She suddenly wondered if she would allow Lord Anthony to call her anything other than Virginia.

James’ grip on her shifted as he grew closer to completion, his arms locked around her waist, his breath harsh and fast. She knew she would be chafed in the morning and would have to be careful how she walked and sat, but it was worth it to hear James gasp out her name once more as he came undone.

His seed cooled against her skin. She felt she ought to be disgusted, but she wasn’t. It was proof of what had passed between them.

James seemed to come back to his senses faster than she did.

“No one can ever know,” he babbled. “We must hide any evidence...”

Pepper looked down at herself. Her skin was pink where he had rubbed against her, but that was all. She could still feel everywhere he had touched her and was surprised that there were no marks on her. It was like the dull ache after a burn. She kept expecting blisters or scars, but there was nothing.

James produced a handkerchief from his pocket and began cleaning Pepper’s legs. He seemed afraid to touch her again, there was no contact of skin to skin.

“James?”

“I must leave. I should never have been here. I should never...”

“Ssh. All will be well.”

He did not respond. She sat up and cupped his cheek with one hand, stroking her thumb over his cheekbone. He leant into her touch in a way that made her heart flutter.

“Lord Anthony is often away...” she said, letting the implication of her words hang in the air between them. “Kiss me again before you leave?”

He hesitated. His move towards her was cautious but his kiss spoke volumes. She knew he was torn. Torn between his desire for her and his love for his friend.

She feared that soon enough she would be feeling torn between her husband and his deputy. But that worry was for another day.

She flopped back against the pillows when he was gone, the faint scent of him still clinging to her sheets.

\--

Loki watched dispassionately. The woman and her lover would be under the spell for the rest of their lives. It was too deeply embedded, he couldn’t save them now without killing them. They would spend their lives trying to find stolen moments and hidden places to slake their thirst for one another, but the satiation would just drive them further. It was addiction. It was rabid. It was insatiable.

From what he could see, it had been the man who was infected, patterned by a shifting wave of magic, but the spell had gradually moved to the woman as well, and by the time they separated they had both been glowing with it.

The pathology was deeply interesting.

It almost seemed intelligent.

And it shouldn’t have been able to move between victims like that. It was strange. Too strange.

And he still didn’t know how he was going to go about stopping it.

He sighed and waved the vision away. Next time had to find it before it had chosen a lover for its victim. He had to track it like a deer and intercept its movements.

He sighed and let his mind reach out again. He had no natural gift for prophecy, and he had paid a sometime ally, Amora, well to show him this little trick. It wasn’t prediction, it was more like...travel. Letting your mind shift to another time and another place. And then just watch.

He’d have to learn how to be corporeal if he was to stop this thing.

He followed the bright lure of the spell as it progressed through generations. An anglerfish, waiting for someone to bite at the forbidden. It didn’t touch another for some centuries. Wild spells are changeable like that. Picking and choosing apparently at random.

Hmm. A man again.

A soldier.


	3. Margaret

She knew what he would say before he opened the door.

She knew it and she knew she had to stand and listen and nod and thank him and only then could she close the door and break down properly.

“Margaret Carter?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry to tell you, but your fiancé, Steven, has been killed in action. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

She nodded and looked at the young man standing on her doorstep. She took in his worried expression, the way he was standing slightly too tall, slightly too poised, the pain behind his eyes, the shadows of lack of sleep beneath them.

“You knew him. You knew Steve.” she said.

“Yes.”

She hesitated for a moment before she spoke again. “Please, come in.”

He glanced around and took off his hat as he crossed the threshold.

“Would you like some tea?” she asked.

It seemed the right thing to do.

Her hands shook taking the kettle off the stove and the cups trembled beneath her grasp. The young man poured it for her.

“I’m sorry, I’m just...”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “It must be a shock.”

“Do you know, it isn’t. And that makes it worse...”

They sat in uncomfortable silence, drinking their tea.

“Please, tell me about Steve in those last months. How was he?”

He coughed.

She waited for him to speak but he seemed reluctant.

“How was he, Mr... I’m so sorry, I haven’t even asked your name...”

“Barnes. Sgt Barnes. But everyone calls me Bucky, Miss Carter.”

“Everyone calls me Peggy, and I’d be more comfortable if you did also.”

He nodded. “I... I don’t want to say this to you, because it feels disrespectful, but he was happy.”

“Why would that be disrespectful?”

“Just that... he was happy. Away from you.”

“I would rather he was happy than suffering.”

Bucky nodded solemnly.

“He talked about you a lot.” he said. “He was often talking about you and how much he wanted to be back here, and his plans for the future. I feel almost like I’ve met you because of that.”

“Was he a good comrade?”

“The best. Everyone loved Steve. I don’t think there is a single man in our battalion who isn’t grieving. And I wanted to bring you the news myself. I think it’s what he would have wanted, rather than a stranger.”

That did sound exactly like Steve. He would want someone he trusted to tell her, someone he could rely on to make sure she was alright.

“Where are you staying tonight?”

“In the village.”

She shook her head. “No, you should stay here. I’ll make up the guest room. I don’t want to be alone in this house tonight.”

“I have to leave early in the morning.”

“That’s alright. I just don’t want to go to bed in an empty house, that’s all.”

“Only if it won’t be any trouble.”

“It won’t.”

Bucky nodded his agreement.

“You have a beautiful home,” he said. “It’s big.”

“Yes, it was my father’s. Before he passed away.”

She winced slightly at her own words and noticed Bucky did the same.

She made up the spare bed in a daze. The news hadn’t quite set in. So a friend of Steve’s was here to stay, nothing unusual about that. They were social people, they often had guests.

She didn’t have to think about it yet.

And if she didn’t think about it, it hadn’t happened.

Dinner was less strained than she expected.

Bucky had many stories about Steve. About how he was tough but fair. He was a good leader. He was equally at home in the field and when they were able to find respite in various towns. He always bought more than his share of drinks. No one had a bad thing to say about him, and Peggy found herself believing that without question. She was glad that everyone else had been able to see him as the wonderful man she knew he was. Had been.

“So what about you?” she asked. “How are you in the field?”

He paused and looked her right in the eyes. “I’m worried that without Steve I won’t be as good as I was.”

“I feel the same.”

They didn’t speak much after that.

“I... I think I shall go to bed.” Peggy said after they had cleared away the plates.

“It has been a long day. Stressful.”

“Yes, and you have an early start tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

She showed him to the spare room and awkwardly bid him goodnight. She crept across the hall and faced the expanse of her own bed. The house had seemed empty for months while Steve was away but now it seemed truly haunted.

Only once she had climbed into bed did she allow herself to break down. Tears fell from her eyes as though she was full of water and overflowing. Her body convulsed in wracking sobs. She felt as though part of her had been forcibly removed.

She wanted to tear out her hair and rip down the curtains and have some kind of physical representation of the pain that she felt was clawing its way out of her chest and settling in her bones.

She wanted to scream until her throat bled.

She didn’t want to feel anything anymore.

Eventually the primary violence of her response began to ease, leaving her with an overwhelming sense of emptiness. Tears continued to fall from her eyes and she wasn’t sure she could stop them even if she wanted to.

It was then that she heard sounds from the opposite side of the house.

A man crying.

Bucky was crying as forcibly as she was.

She wasn’t even aware of her feet moving until she was knocking on the door. When there was no response, she opened it and silently crossed to the bed.

He seemed unaware of her presence until she reached out and ran a hand over the back of his head, her fingers skimming through his cropped hair. He looked up at her sharply, wiping his eyes roughly.

“I’m sorry that I disturbed you.” he said, shakily.

“You didn’t, but I heard... I thought we could cry together for a while.”

He hesitated.

“I don’t think either of us are going to get much sleep.” Peggy said.

Bucky let out a shuddering sigh and moved sideways, patting the edge of the bed in invitation. She sat down, burying her face in her hands.

“It’s been months and I’m like this every night,” Bucky was saying. “I saw him, I saw him fall, I saw him laid out and I went and I begged and begged to be allowed to come and tell you myself, used my leave to come, I’d have injured myself if I had to just to get here...”

Months. Steve had been dead for months and she hadn’t known.  She’d been carrying on like everything was normal, like he was coming home soon, like his letters were just delayed in the post, and Steve had been dead...

“I wouldn’t let them send the telegram, I didn’t want you to have something so impersonal and I just... He loved you so much and I wanted to...”

Peggy found herself wrapping her arms around Bucky, letting him cry against her. He mumbled something.

“Pardon?”

He moved back, his eyes searching her face before he steeled himself.

“I loved him.” he said.

Peggy blinked for a moment. Bucky breathed heavily, waiting for her reaction.

“So did I.” she said.

They sat together in silence for a moment, tears staining their faces.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do without him,” Bucky said quietly. “I don’t have any family, no parents, no siblings, nothing. I don’t have anyone left. Steve was the only good thing in my life. I can’t imagine going on without him.”

Peggy imagined her own life stretching out in front of her, without Steve. The ring on her finger suddenly meant nothing with no Steve coming back to her. So many plans were useless now. So many ideas would never come to fruition. She was adrift. And so was Bucky.

“You could... You could come and live with me,” she said hesitantly. “We could... You could marry me. And we could be each other’s family.”

He stared at her. “Are you serious?”

She nodded. “I have no one either. I have brothers but...well, they’re away, they’re...at war and so I can’t guarantee that they’ll come home.”

“You can’t guarantee that I’ll come home.”

“But I can hope.”

He considered, his eyes flicking back and forth, looking at nothing in particular.

“I can’t love you the way he loved you.”

“I know.”

“And I can’t love you the way I loved him.”

“I know. I fear I’ll be very much the same. You need somewhere to live and I can’t live alone. It’s an economical transaction.”

He took a deep breath and nodded. “OK. OK. We have nothing left to lose, I suppose. If I come back... I will marry you.”

He held out his hand to be shaken. A strangely business-like transaction for such a thing.

She shook it. “I do have one request before you leave tomorrow morning.”

“What is it?”

“Will you come and sleep in my bed? Just sleep, I can’t... I don’t want to sleep alone tonight...”

He gripped her hand again, and followed her to her room, pausing a moment before sliding into bed next to her, in the space meant for Steve. It was the closest either of them was going to get, now.

\--

The spell was glorious in its cruelty, Loki thought. Quite beautiful really.

It made the man desire his friend, already an unlikely dream, and when the friend was dead it did not release him. Rather it infected the friend’s fiancée too, taking two lives’ worth of desire and frustration at once.

He flicked quickly through images of the man and woman’s life together after the war, both of them lit up with wishing for someone who could not be brought back to them. They were fine companions otherwise. From time to time, they attempted a physical relationship, but it did nothing to stop the spell. It seemed to fuel it, rather, as both imagined someone long dead in their arms and in their bed. They had a child together and named him Steven. A living reminder of what they had lost but still desired.

But Loki was growing more desperate now.

It had been several months since Thor had accidentally unleashed the spell upon the world, in his time. Several months in which Loki had been tracking it through several eras, trying to intercept it. He had thought the death of the desired object would have stopped it and made it wither, not made it worse. The impossibility of passing beyond death should have stopped it.

The only explanation was that two souls yearning for one lost kept the desire alive in one another.

How strange people were.

So death could not stop it, satiation could not stop it...

Loki was starting to wonder if he was out of options.


	4. Darcy

_‘His hands rolled across her skin, never going where she expected, nudging her ever closer to...’_

No.

_‘She moaned as he stroked her flesh, one hand tangling in her hair while the other...’_

No.

_'She found herself wishing he had more hands, so that he could touch her everywhere at once...’_

That’s... That’s just weird, Darce.

She tapped her fingers against the keyboard without pressing any keys.

She wasn’t even sure why she did this anymore.

She wasn’t paid for it. She wasn’t very good at it. She found writing porn weird and difficult.

It did seem to make people happy though.

It wasn’t like she didn’t have enough else in her life, she did, she was very fulfilled. Professionally, socially, sexually. But there was something nice about writing something that people enjoyed. Even if it was trashy. Even if it was pointless. Even if lots of other people did it better than she did.

She liked doing it. The feedback made it worth it.

But writing sex was just...

Finding a balance between being original and not saying strange things was hard.

And words for genitals were a nightmare. ‘Penis’ and ‘vagina’ seemed clinical, but you had to make sure you didn’t stray into ‘velvet steel’ territory.

And then there was the awkwardness of talking about it. The writing, not genitals. She kept it a secret from most people. And she was afraid of people asking if what she wrote was the kind of thing she wanted from a relationship.

It wasn’t.

Really, it wasn’t.

All her writing had dark elements, questionable content, kinks she didn’t necessarily share.

At least, not all the time.

What she wanted was someone who could maybe give her those kinks in a safe environment but who would go to the grocery store with her and watch tacky reality TV with her and laugh at her stupid jokes.

She couldn’t imagine any of her characters fulfilling the second half of that equation.

So yeah, she tried to make sure that she found what she wrote hot so that other people would too, hopefully, but it wasn’t necessarily what she wanted.

Ugh...

She read back over what she’d written so far, editing here and there.

And then she was aware that someone was standing behind her.

She spotted the reflection in her computer screen, froze, and tried subtly to look for a weapon.

“I wouldn’t use ‘moist’ there, if I were you. Makes a lot of people uncomfortable for some reason...”

She managed to land an elbow in his stomach and leapt to her feet before the intruder shoved her against the wall. She twisted and tried to kick out at him.

“Stop,” he said, grappling with her. “I am not here to harm you.”

She stopped moving and felt his grip loosen slightly. She instantly struck out again, cuffing his face. He growled and grabbed her wrists. She found herself looking into a stern face, all glinting teeth and manic eyes. Also he seemed to be dressed entirely in leather. Everything here screamed ‘serial killer’.

She was probably about to die.

She wasn’t going down without a fight and kept struggling.

“Stop,” he said, shoving her back with all his weight. “Listen. You are in trouble and I am here to help you.”

“I wouldn’t be in trouble if there wasn’t a creep in my house.”

He chuckled darkly, sending shivers across her skin.

“Oh, Darcy... You’re in more trouble than you could ever know.”

Her breathing hitched. There was a man in her house, he knew her name, she wasn’t sure how he got in, and he’d...

...given her advice on her erotic fiction. Maybe she could play for time, fool him somehow and escape.

She took a deep breath and stilled completely.

His expression softened but only slightly.

“Better. Now I’d like to let go of you, but I don’t trust you not to try to run away, and we can’t have that, so...”

Something drew her hands together in front of her. Something kept them there. Something she couldn’t see. The man took her by the shoulder and led her to her own couch, pushing her down to sit on it, before something locked her legs into place.

“You’re not real,” she said. “This is impossible, and I’m dreaming this.”

“Yes. Exactly. This is a dream and none of this has consequences. Now, listen. You, Darcy, are a carrier of a very terrible disease. And I’m here to treat it.”

“What kind of disease?”

He appraised her. “Do you believe in magic?”

“Until you managed to enchant my limbs together, no, but I’m starting to question that.”

“Hmm. Smart.”

She waited for him to continue but he just kept looking at her. “You’re saying I have a magical disease?”

“Yes. There was... an accident. A spell. And it has infected you. I’m here to stop it before it devours you.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

She scoffed. “Well, that’s great, Harry Potter, thanks. So your plan is to tie me up and...then what? Just leave me here?”

“No, my plan is to tie you up and experiment on you until I figure out what to do.”

Her blood ran cold.

“You said you wouldn’t harm me.”

“I also said ‘experiment’, not ‘vivisect’.”

Darcy frowned. “Semantics. What’s the risk? If I don’t let you do this, what will this... this spell do to me?”

“It is... effectively it is a love spell. It is complex. But it will ruin your life, trust me.”

She raised her invisibly-bound hands. “I’m sorry, but I don’t trust people who tie me up without permission.”

His eyes flickered. “Fine.”

She felt the restraints loosen and instantly tried to escape. Her muscles gave out and she would have fallen headfirst through her coffee table if he hadn’t caught her around the midriff.

“Let me go!” she yelled as he dumped her on her back on the couch.

“You asked not to be tied. You are not. You said nothing of having the use of your limbs.”

She tried to thrash violently but couldn’t. It was like her arms and legs had been disconnected from her brain. Eventually she stopped trying.

“Are you finished?” the man asked.

She said nothing but lay still, eyeing him warily.

“As I was saying, I need to find out how to draw the spell out of you. For this, I will be requiring your cooperation. Believe me, I am only trying to help you. So...” He sat in her armchair, crossing his legs. “Tell me your deepest, darkest desire.”

She stared at him in surprise.

“Take as long as you want. I have time.”

He sat in silence for a while, observing her.

“Alternatively, I could read some of your... uh... creative oeuvre for clues...”

She laughed. “That doesn’t have my darkest desire in it.”

“Ah, finally we’re getting somewhere.”

He looked at her expectantly.

“My deepest secret is that... I don’t have one. I am painfully vanilla. Nothing I write is based in actual desire. I am dull. Everyone thinks I’m kinky as fuck and I’m just... not.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

More staring. She began to feel increasingly uncomfortable.

“Hmm... Perhaps you aren’t... Then tell me this. Whom do you desire?”

“What?”

“There is a person. There must be. Who is it?”

She blinked a few times. “Well, no one in particular...”

“You have a lover. I have seen him. Perfectly adequate.”

“Ian is more than ‘adequate’!” she spluttered.

“Oh, he tries hard. Satisfies you. But he is not the focus, it is NOT him...”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“The spell makes you desire someone you cannot have. It gives you obsessive want, drives you to the point of madness. There is no one around you that you cannot have. I... am lost, I can see the spell in you, just beneath your skin, and yet I cannot find its target...”

Darcy didn’t say anything. Typical that she was dealing with a madman in her dreams. Nothing pleasant like lounging on a perfect golden beach with attractive men attending her every whim. Oh, no, of course not.

Fuck you, subconscious.

The intruder was still talking. “But if it is not a person and there is no physical act in particular that you want from your lover that is denied you then I don’t understand...”

Perhaps talking helped him think. She started when he suddenly turned to her, as though struck by a new idea.

“He doesn’t exist.” he said, triumphantly.

“What?”

“The object of your desire is within your head, he is a fictional man made of all the qualities your perfect man would have. With him there is no compromise. There is no misunderstanding, there is no confusion. You do not need to conceal anything from him. He is perfect for you, as if he had been made so. Because you created him. The idea of a person, the ideal. But he does not exist.”

He crouched in front of the couch, his face uncomfortably close to hers.

“It is no wonder I could find no target. The target and the start point are the same.”

He suddenly gripped her head, one hand in her hair to hold her still and placing two fingers from the other against her forehead. She yelped when cold ran through her brain like an ice-cream headache.

“Be still. I am trying to draw it out of you.”

“It stings.”

He frowned. “It...shouldn’t. It’s...it’s anchored too strongly.”

He grasped her face in both hands. “Let him go, Darcy. You will never have him, and the knowledge will eat you alive. He isn’t real.”

“You’re not real!” she said, knowing it was childish as the words left her lips.

“You’re right,” he said, sitting back on his heels. “I’m not. Which means...”

He placed a hand against her forehead again, far gentler than any of his previous actions. Her head tingled where he touched her, like feathers fluttering against her skin. His eyes were closed tightly and she watched in horror as he changed in front of her. His hair retracted, his emaciated form thickened into something more healthy, his skin darker, his face kinder, even his clothing changed and she jerked away from his touch when she recognised the figure in front of her.

Someone who only existed in her own head.

“Darcy...” he breathed, and, Jesus, even his _voice_ was right.

She stared at him in disbelief and moved backwards into the couch, her limbs suddenly working again.

“What’s wrong, love?”

“You... you’re...” she couldn’t find the words.

“I’m here. For you.”

She shook her head as he mounted the couch, straddling her but taking care to keep her comfortable beneath him.

“This is your one chance,” he said. “I am not real. This is your only opportunity to have me.”

“But...” she said as he bent to kiss her neck. “But I created you...”

“Exactly. So use me. Take what you want from me, do what you will with me.”

She twisted under him. “He’d never say that. Just because you look like him, doesn’t mean you are him.”

“Then I won’t speak and you can do what you want. Slake your lust.”

She could do this. She could have her fantasy made flesh. This was a dream, in a dream she could do anything she wanted and it didn’t count. She could have him, she could have his arms around her and his voice in her ear telling her that she was beautiful and perfect and incredible and he’d know just how fast to go and when to roll over to let her be on top and he’d know exactly where the clitoris was without needing to be told because she dreamt him up and so he was perfect and he was hers and she could have this...

“Kiss me.” he demanded.

Her thoughts suddenly flashed to Ian. Who was funny and sweet and infuriating and drove her crazy sometimes. Who wasn’t perfect. And she didn’t want him to be. She wanted him to be himself.

He was real.

He was important.

She looked into the eyes of her own creation, filled with desire and yet somehow totally dead.

She blinked and set her jaw.

“You do not exist and I do not want you.”

He looked at her in surprise. “Say that again. Louder.”

“You do not exist and I do not want you.”

“Again!”

“You do not exist and I do not want you!”

He lunged for her, clamping his lips to hers and gripping tight to her shoulders as she tried to break away. It _burned_ her. It was like boiling water was pouring from her mouth into his and she screamed at the pain of it. Finally he broke away, breathing hard, back to his former appearance, and rolled onto the floor with a heavy thump.

She immediately moved to put the couch between herself and him, looking over the top of it, curiously watching as he recovered. Eventually he sat up, staring at his hands as though he’d never seen them before.

“Hmm... Rejection... The host had to reject the spell, and mean it.” he slowly looked up at her, his voice shaking slightly. “Thank you. You’ve been a great deal of help. Go to bed. This never happened.”

He vanished in front of her eyes.

Darcy stood in silence for a minute before crossing to her computer.

She carefully deleted the word ‘moist’.

\--

Loki slumped in the corner of the room, his vision swimming and fought the urge to vomit. Amora hadn’t mentioned travel sickness.

But he had the spell now.

He held a hand in front of his face and laughed joylessly at the patterns moving beneath his skin.

He literally had it. It was in his flesh. But at least from here he could stop it for good.

Assuming it didn’t try to consume him first.

It raged at him. He had stolen it out of the heart of its chosen victim and it was somehow... angry. And determined to destroy him for what he had done.

He lurched to his feet, resting against the wall briefly before moving towards the only two things that mattered right now.

Food.

And Thor.


	5. Thor

“Did you hear that?”

Sif looked up at him in surprise. “Hear what?”

Thor’s blood ran cold. “Nothing. Nothing, must have just been the wind. Go back to sleep, love.”

He smiled at her reassuringly and waited until she was definitely asleep once more before he slipped out of bed and hastened out the door.

The wind didn’t say names or whisper locations in your ear.

He barely made it to the clearing when Loki tackled him. Or rather fell into him.

“Loki?” Thor groaned, dragging himself out from under his brother. “Are you alright? You look terrible.”

Loki laughed, the sound tearing from his chest. “It’s good to see you too.”

Thor eyed him warily, taking in the shadowed eyes and the sheen of sweat across his skin, the thinness of his face and hair visible even in the moonlight.

“You’re sick, Loki,” he said. “Let me get you a healer.”

Loki grabbed his ankle. “I don’t need a healer...”

“Really? Then what do you need?”

“You.”

Thor scrambled backwards as Loki crawled towards him, far faster than he should have been able to in his current state.

“What are you talking about?” His back hit a tree and Loki gleefully climbed into his lap to pin him there, heat radiating from his skin.

“Look.” Loki raised a hand in front of Thor’s face. “Look!”

“Yes, it’s your hand. Very good.”

Loki growled at him. “No. Look!”

Thor dutifully stared at his brother’s hand, waiting for this to become clear. He started when he saw the faint glow beneath the skin, shifting like reflections in a lake.

“The spell...” he breathed.

“Yes. I have captured it. I’m holding it, just. And now you have to help me get rid of it. I can get rid of it safely, like lightning striking the ground, but you have to help me.”

“What must I do?”

“Oh, I’d have thought that was obvious...”

He shifted to fully straddle Thor, threw his arms around his neck and canted his hips forward. Thor looked at him in concern.

“You need to fuck me, brother.”

Thor tried push him away.

“Loki, no. We can’t, it is not right...”

Loki whined and burrowed his face into Thor’s neck.

“But we _need_ to. It’s _burning_ me, Thor, I need to be free from it before it burns me up, it _hurts_...”

“No, this is not you. It’s making you do this.”

Loki grabbed his face and looked into his eyes.

“Think of it like that. I’m not me. If I am not your brother, you can do this for me.”

Thor considered this.

“You can find someone else.”

A snarl from Loki. “No! It must be tonight. I have spent a year tracking this thing through time. For you. I have seen it destroy lives before I was able to capture it. I have seen it destroy marriages and friendships and I have seen it kill. This is the very night one year since it was created, you are the one who created it, I have captured it at your request and you _will_ help me destroy it.”

“Jane. Jane could do this.”

“And I suppose you know where I can find her? No, it has to be you and it has to be now.”

“And if I do not?”

“Then you condemn me to death. It will kill me, Thor, rest assured. It didn’t choose me, I took it from a victim. I dragged it back through centuries. It is angry and strives to be free. I won’t be able to hold it forever.”

Thor stared at him. This could be one of Loki’s tricks. It could be.

But he couldn’t risk it.

“Very well. Guide me.”

Loki slammed their mouths together, sloppily covering Thor in kisses and mumbling against his skin.

“Thank you, brother, thank you... You can talk to me during it, it’s not like crafting a spell, and you can touch me anywhere you want...”

His hands were deftly removing his own clothes and he pawed at Thor’s chest until he started to undress. It was difficult for Thor with Loki panting and squirming against him, working hard to get him aroused, and eventually he tipped his brother backwards into the dirt to get better access to his trousers.

“Yes... Come on, hurry.”

Once naked, Thor knelt up and rolled their clothes into a makeshift pillow but paused in the action of putting it under Loki’s head. He groaned when Loki took the opportunity to grasp his cock and give it a few strokes, his eyes already beginning to glaze.

“No,” Thor said. “No, not like this. Roll over.”

Loki smirked lazily but did as he was told. “Wanting ease of access, brother?”

“No. I would rather not see your face.”

“Oh, I see. Grab my hair and pretend I’m Sif if it helps.”

Thor chuckled. “You could not look less like her, especially from behind. But I don’t want to see your eyes when the magic takes you. It scared me with Jane, I don’t want to see that with you.”

“I’d be touched if I weren’t in rather desperate need for you to get on with things.”

Thor took a deep breath and surveyed his brother, naked and on hands and knees in front of him, sweating and panting, offered up to him. He was about to fuck his own brother. There was no going back from this.

He tentatively ran a hand over Loki’s flank, which earned him a shudder and a whine.

“Don’t you need to... be prepared for this?”

Loki laughed breathlessly and said something Thor didn’t understand.

“What?”

“Lubrication spell. Since we don’t have the time to do this properly.”

“Why do you know how to do that?”

Loki glanced back over his shoulder. “Don’t flatter yourself by thinking you’re my first, Thor.”

“You’re my first.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Loki’s voice was slurring now. “You have children, so unless Sif has told you some very convincing lies...”

“No, I mean... I’ve never done this with a man before.”

“From your perspective I imagine it will be very much the same. Now, if you could just... just...”

Thor shuffled closer and draped himself over Loki’s back.

“Tell me what you want, Loki.”

“It’s not what I want, Thor, it’s what I need. Now fuck me.”

Thor gripped his brother’s hips and entered him carefully.

The reaction from Loki was instantaneous. His back arched, his head thrown back and a noise of satisfaction from his lips. He pushed back, trying to take Thor fully, trying to get more.

Thor was overwhelmed. He desperately resisted the urge to take and rut, still trying to maintain a resemblance of control over his instincts. He began to move, slow and steady and deep, gently rocking them both forward with each stroke.

Loki was having no such dilemma. He had fallen forward, his head resting on his forearms, a continuous stream of words spilling out of him apparently unconsciously.

“More, more, harder, please, Thor, please... I need it, I need you, please, fuck me, come on... Come on, come on, you won’t break me, please...”

Thor continued at the pace he had set. Loki was so thin the ridges of his spine were clearly visible. Thor was genuinely afraid of harming him.

“Thor. More. Now.”

“No.”

A growl of frustration. “Is this how you fuck your wife? Is this how you give it to her? I’m amazed she manages to stay awake.”

“Goading me won’t work.”

“Of course, perhaps she goes elsewhere for satisfaction, has to find someone else to make her scream...”

“Loki...”

“I should visit more often. If this is all she can expect in her bed at night, she must be simply desperate for someone to give her a good hard fucking...”

Thor adjusted his grip and slammed home, gaining a started yelp from Loki followed by a laugh of satisfaction.

“Still bored, brother?”

“Again...”

Thor chuckled and complied. “Seems like you’re the one who’s desperate. So needy...”

Loki whined but didn’t disagree. Thor continued his faster movements, smiling with satisfaction when a particularly deep thrust caused Loki to cry out. He tried to recreate that motion, having found a weakness, a crack in the armour.

“How long have you dreamed of this?” he mused. “How many nights have you spent with your fingers in your arse pretending it was me?”

“Shut up...”

“How many men have you let fuck you, leaving you unsatisfied? How often did you dream of this and scheme about how you would convince me to give it to you?”

Loki panted harshly, planting his palms on the ground to push back against Thor.

“Shut up. I need to...”

“You need to what?”

“I need to come. I need to... Please, help me... Touch me, Thor.”

Thor reached around to jerk Loki’s cock, trying to match the speed of his thrusts but failing as he felt his own orgasm beginning to creep up on him.

“Come on, then, Loki. Come for me, brother.”

Loki braced himself and screamed as he came, the ground under his hands glowing and pulsing where the spell was exiting his body. The dried leaves around them grew singed as Thor was dragged over the edge by Loki’s twitching and he only barely managed to avoid falling on top of him.

It took him a moment after recovering to realise that Loki was not moving.

“Loki?”

Thor rolled his brother over, noting the scrapes on his knees and the red angry welts down his arms, burn marks from expelling the magic from his flesh.

“Loki!”

Loki’s eyelids fluttered and finally opened. He took a moment to focus on Thor. He groaned and carefully inspected his hand.

“Well. It worked. How fortunate.” he breathed.

“You didn’t know it would?”

“I was confident but I didn’t know for certain.”

“So you... You might have had me fuck you for no reason?” Thor asked, a trace of betrayal in his voice.

Loki tried to laugh but winced in pain. “I don’t think ‘no reason’ is fair. I had been trying to think of a means to have you for some time. I wasn’t going to die without at least trying. I wanted you. And the evidence leaking down my thighs at present suggests you enjoyed yourself too.”

Thor frowned and went to collect his clothes.

“I... am glad you are safe,” he said carefully. “But I think this was a mistake.”

“A mistake? No. This is just the beginning, Thor.”

“No.”

“You said you would grant me anything I wished if I were to successfully defeat the spell. I did. This is my request. That from time to time, when I need a... practical assistant for my seidr, I can come to you. Fear not, it will be infrequent, but the power I will gain from it will be exponential.”

“Why? What power would you gain from me that you couldn’t get from others?” Thor asked, pulling his shirt over his head.

“We share blood, Thor. Blood is powerful. Acts between us will have far more strength than acts with others. Have you heard of Frey and Freya? The twins?”

Thor shook his head.

“They are sorcerers. Highly potent ones. I could not discover how they possessed such great power and followed them for weeks before I found out that it was because they fucked each other to seal their spells. Such acts are technically forbidden but... so very powerful. And it was quite beautiful in a distressing way. Very passionate.”

Thor wouldn’t even look at him.

“I’m lucky that you’re attractive.” Loki continued. “And skilled in love, if that doesn’t flatter you too much. I don’t understand how Freya stands having Frey above her, all grunts and no finesse at all. We could at least make sure that both of us were satisfied. And I think that if we learned each other’s bodies further we could reach new heights of pleasure together. The more intense the experience, the more powerful the spell.”

Thor considered for a moment. He would be lying if he said he had not enjoyed his brother’s body. And surely if he was doing this to help Loki, then it couldn’t be entirely wrong. And none but themselves would know.

Loki rolled over and crawled towards him, grimacing with the effort.

“Think of it,” he said as he approached. “Think of all the things we’ll be able to do. I will ride you to completion, I will suck your cock and drink all you can give me, anything you want, I will do. Use me as I use you, it’s only fair.”

He could see Thor was starting to waver and moved in for the kill, running his hands down Thor’s legs and looking up at him from his knees.

“All the things you’ve ever desired but dare not ask of your wife, I will give to you, I promise.”

Thor looked down at the still nude form of his brother, the hooded eyes begging for him, and sighed.

“How often would this occur?” he asked.

“Once, maybe twice a year. Unless we decide to meet more often, of course.”

“Hmm...”

Loki ran the tip of his tongue over his upper lip and knew from Thor’s look that he had won.

“I suppose I will see you in a few months time.”

“I will call to you.”

Thor left without another word.

Loki smiled to himself as he got dressed.

He wondered how long it would be before he managed to convince Thor to spread his own legs.

He’d have to find Jane and give her something truly special if that happened.

Accidents could turn out to be for the best after all.


End file.
